Well, that answered one question, at least; she was one of the poor wretches turned as an experiment by the vampires. One group of fool vampires trying to make an army to attack the witches and win the next Blood War.

  “Why are you even here?” I was tired of these games. Tired of talking. I wanted Sybil back and then we’d need to figure out what to do with Magpie and her cronies. But that did raise a good question—Haven Hollow was a spell of a far trip from Blood Rose. “We’ve never done anything to you.”

  Magpie stared at me like I’d just grown three additional heads. “You’re joking, right?”

  Now it was my turn to stare at her as Imani and Poppy moved forward to stand at my side.

  Poppy’s bleeding heart was on her sleeve for all to see, looking at Magpie and seeing only that she was young and had been used for someone else’s nefarious purposes. Imani just looked concerned. She was sensible like that.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Lorcan skulked into the shadows, heading for the back of the building. My heart squeezed in my chest, and I knew he’d find Sybil. All he needed was for me to buy him time. So that’s exactly what I’d do.

  “Alright, I’ll bite. How is it that Circle Scapegrace has wronged you, because from where I’m standing, I don’t see that we’ve done anything to you.”

  Magpie laughed, high and wild. “I came for Astrid, of course.”

  My throat seized, and I saw Maverick stiffen like he’d been turned to stone. It was fine, Astrid was fine. She was away from here, with her Uncle Fox, and as little as I thought of how Fox had handled Taliyah and their ridiculous betrothal, I knew he’d never let harm come to his only niece.

  Magpie barked a laugh so bitter, it sounded like it tore her throat to spit it out. “Bad enough, getting turned by that man, Professor Valserak,” she spat. “But then Astrid comes swanning in, upends everything, and suddenly he’s dead, and you’d think, good, right? Good, he can’t control me. Good, that horrible little whisper in my head is gone. Good, he’ll never do this to anyone else.”

  She glared down at us all, fangs bared, fists balled at her sides. In the glaring beams of the headlights, I could see she was shaking.

  “I lost everything. My life. My family. Everything taken away. And it’s all her fault.”

  Even from down on the ground, I could hear the growl rumbling in Magpie’s chest.

  “And then, I come all this way, and she’s not even here!” The laugh that slipped out of her mouth was tinged with hysteria. “She’s not even here! So, I think, how can I get my revenge? And I decided I’d break her coven. If they start falling apart, she’ll have to come back from wherever she’s gone, right? She’ll have to.”

  I had to keep her talking to give Lorcan a chance to find Sybil. Just keep her talking, no matter how much I wanted to hit her with a blood bolt and knock her right off the roof. Only the knowledge that Astrid was safe kept me in check. Young or not, if she’d touched my cousin, I would have hexed her into the ground.

  Magpie glared down at us, her chest heaving with breaths she didn’t have to take any longer. “And tearing up your coven was a joke. Just like your coven’s a joke. You’re a mess! Each of you at the other’s throats. And you,” she jabbed a finger in my direction. “You’re not even a vampire! A real vampire might not have spotted me, my glamour can make me seem pretty alive. But no way they’d risk going out in daylight like you did.”

  I cursed under my breath. Great, a vengeful teenage vampire hybrid had found me out. If she went around flapping her gums to the wrong people, things could get very dangerous for Lorcan and me, and I wasn’t about to let that happen.

  “And she’s still not here!” Magpie threw her hands up in the air. “All this, and Astrid’s not even here. So, I figure,” she continued, her head tipping forward. The headlights cast her face in harsh shadows. I caught the gleam of fang between her lips. “Fair is fair. She took from me, I take from her. Starting with her coven sister.”

  Maverick snarled, and the clouds above echoed his anger. I could feel the danger mounting in the air. Something had to give, or it was going to tip us all over into disaster.

  “I wonder what happens when you turn a shapeshifter?” Magpie tilted her head to one side in an odd, animal gesture, like a bird spotting a particularly juicy worm. “I guess I inherited some of my sire’s interest in experimentation. Why don’t we all find out together?”

  She moved fast enough that she was just a blur. One second, she was perched on the roof like a bird about to take flight. The next, she was crouched on the ground, her fangs barred, ready to throw herself forward.

  I shoved Poppy, small, fragile, human Poppy, behind me, summoning magic into my hands. Taliyah drew her weapon, and the clouds above us growled, violet light flickering in their depths.

  “Mags?”

  Magpie jerked towards the side of the building, her eyes wide in her pale face.

  Sybil was there, rubbing her eyes like she’d just woken from a nap. Lorcan was with her, his hand on her shoulder, keeping her back.

  My heart leapt like it was full of helium. Sybil was there, in front of me, looking totally unharmed other than the crease of whatever sleep spell Magpie had put her under. I wanted to run to her, but I was worried it would set Magpie off, and even with Lorcan there, the hybrid was way too close.

  Sybil’s eyes were wide as she took us all in. “Mags, what’s going on?”

  Magpie growled, staring Lorcan down. “Get your hand off her.”

  That had my eyebrows flying up. That was an odd reaction from someone who’d threatened to murder Sybil and raise her as the undead not a few seconds before.

  “It’s okay. Lorcan wouldn’t hurt me.” Sybil patted Lorcan’s hand and started to step forward, frowning in confusion when Lorcan held her back.

  “Sybil, my dove, your little friend is the one who’s been causing problems for the coven.” Lorcan’s brogue was thicker than usual, and his eyes never left Magpie where she crouched on the ground.

  Sybil looked at Magpie, her expression full of betrayal. “But, why?”

  Before I could open my mouth and say, “Because she’s nuttier than squirrel dung,” Lorcan cut in.

  “Because she’s lost and hurting.”

  Okay, record scratch. Hold on there a moment, vamp lover of mine. Were we at the same tense stand-off with a turned faerie out for revenge against my cousin? A turned fae who’d been harassing us for weeks? One who’d stolen and vandalized and thrown a freaking mannequin at our doorstep? I was two seconds away from lighting her up like a yule log, and Lorcan decided to go all Doctor Phil on her? This was the kind of nonsense I expected from Poppy, not from Lorcan!

  Wait, maybe it was a ruse so I could get a good shot in.

  I looked at his face, and while it was tense, it was weirdly sincere in a way Lorcan didn’t often do in public.

  Not a ruse, then.

  Ugh.

  What was worse was the expression on Magpie’s face. She was watching Lorcan like he was a snake that might bite her, wary, afraid. She looked young, and while that didn’t mean much when it came to the fae, something told me that it was the truth.

  Lorcan shuffled Sybil behind him and took a step forward. “I know how you feel. Losing your sire, even a terrible one, having them ripped away when you’re just newly turned.” He shook his head. “That’s not something I’d wish on anyone. It makes you feel lost. Unmoored. Abandoned by the person who was supposed to watch over you.”

  And then I felt like a jerk. Lorcan had lost his sire, and then lost his adoptive sire in Rupert (which was only a good thing, really). But I supposed if anyone knew what Magpie was going through, it would be him.

  Magpie stared at him, unmoving except for the heave of her chest. It was a sign of distress, I was pretty sure, since vampires didn’t need air.

  Lorcan took another step. “What they did to you, it was wrong. And the people in charge, they should have looked after you.”

  When Lorcan described how the Kiss worked for vampires, he made it sound like it was supposed to be this important thing. The forging of a bond, almost like becoming family. The sire bond was supposed to help them guide a newly risen vampire, to help them control their new and sometimes confusing existence. There were rules, about siring people, about what you owed them.

  Magpie had been turned as an experiment. She was made out of spite, as a weapon in a fool’s army. There was no one to guide her, or look after her once the traitors had been executed for their crimes. No one for her to trust. She’d been left on her own, to fend for herself, after having her whole identity stripped away from her.

  I was still pissed about what she’d done to the coven, don’t get me wrong. She could have put all of us in danger. With cracks in the foundation, we would have been vulnerable to attacks from outside, as well as within.

  But looking at her now, seeing the girl through the monster, watching her shake as she tried to posture at Lorcan, I couldn’t quite bring myself to hate her.

  Maverick surprised me by taking a step forward. He wasn’t a fan of vampires in general, but ever since he’d been blooded in a violent attack by Janeth who’d killed and turned my brothers, he’d been especially wary. I didn’t think he’d want to get within thirty feet of another blood-drinker.

  “You have nowhere else to go, Magpie,” he said. “You don’t belong anywhere now.” I wasn’t sure what point he was trying to make. “So, stay here then.”

  Magpie stared. Maybe as hard as I did.

  What was Maverick thinking? Was whatever soft-headed nonsense going on with Lorcan actually catching, spreading? I was going to have to check them for curses before they got back in the cars.

  Everyone but Taliyah looked at my cousin like he’d just started river dancing.

  Taliyah, though, kept her eyes on Magpie. And that brought up a good point: Taliyah would have noticed if Magpie had put a whammy on Maverick, wouldn’t she have?

  The girl squinted and shook her head, like she wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly. “What?”

  Maverick’s cheek ticked, but his voice stayed level. “Stay here. In the Hollow. There’s a group of vampires in town who are in a similar position to you. I’m sure one of them could act as a–” His face did a series of complicated expressions, his mouth puckering like he’d bitten into something sour. “Sire, for you.”

  I wanted to slap my own forehead at the sheer amount of idiocy going on around me. Because Maverick was right; Will and Amos were exactly the kind of soft-headed nitwits who’d take in some waif turned against her will like they’d been. At least I was also confident that they’d sit on her if they had to, to keep her from acting out any more elaborate revenge fantasies.

  Magpie’s eyes darted around the lot of us, her shoulders shaking like she was having a fit. “This is a trick.”

  Maverick glanced back at me, and oh, how nice for him to remember that I was actually the High Witch in town and technically got final say on this debacle. Still, if he was able to talk down a half-mad, vampire infant with no guidance, the least I could do was back him up. I did roll my eyes, though.

  “It’s not a trick. If you give up all of,” I twirled my finger in the air, taking in the crowd and the whole of Haven Hollow behind us. “This, then we’ll help you. Give you a place to get your feet back on the ground and to learn how to cope with your new identity. We can give you a place to be, well, safe.”

  The word ‘safe’ landed like a sucker punch, and Magpie flinched back from it.

  Well, son of a witch, that had even my shriveled black heart twinging. Lorcan was making me soft.

  “Y-you–” Magpie swallowed, hard enough that I could see it from across the parking lot. “You’re lying. You’re–”

  Sybil slipped out from behind Lorcan and made her way towards her friend. My heart leapt in my throat, and I almost yelled for Lorcan to stop her, to pull her back. But he looked, not exactly calm, but watchful. I knew he’d jump in if he needed to, faster than I ever could. I just needed to trust him.

  “Stay, Mags,” Sybil said, bringing one hand up to rest on the other girl’s shoulder. “Please? You’re not alone. You’re still my friend.”

  Mags blinked, her face crumpling. She darted forward then, throwing herself at Sybil as I felt my breath catch in my throat. Magic surged into my hands as Magpie dropped her head forward, towards Sybil’s throat.

  Her brow landed on Sybil’s shoulder, shoulders jerking as she cried, clutching Sybil to her.

  It took me two tries to let the blood bolt drop from my hand to sputter harmlessly against the ground. I swallowed, trying to force my heart back down out of my throat.

  When we got home, I was going to give Sybil a ninety-minute lecture on risk/benefit ratio analysis, and from the way Maverick was still white to the lips, he was going to be right there alongside me.

  Alright, one far too clever and vicious hybrid neutralized, at least for the moment. It was hard to look intimidating when sobbing your heart out onto someone’s shoulder. I’d need to contact my brothers, notify the council. Ugh, it was going to be another long night full of work that somehow fell to me.

  I caught a glimpse of Poppy, looking practically dewy-eyed as she watched the two girls hug it out in the glare of the headlights.

  Ugh. This town. This spell forsaken town.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Magpie ended up being taken in by Will and Amos and their vampires, and they seemed oddly thrilled to have the fae girl as a member of their motley crew.

  There was still some debate on exactly which one of them would be stepping in to act as her sire or step-sire, as it were. The last I heard, they were making something of a competition out of it.

  Taliyah had also read Magpie the riot act on biting unwilling humans, which was mitigated somewhat by the girl being utterly bewildered that there were rules around that sort of thing. They really had just turned her and left her to wolves. Except wolves actually took care of their offspring. I suppose no one cares about educating a weapon.

  At least the girl hadn’t quite worked herself up to actual murder, so there was some silver lining. As it turned out, that was why she’d launched a mannequin at Lorcan’s door. She hadn’t had the stomach for it to be a real body, so she’d made do. And here I’d been panicking it was some pointed threat against Sybil.

  I was quite happy to have dusted my hands of the entire ordeal. Will and Amos would keep her from becoming a murderous little monster, and give her some structure and guidance. I probably would have been less willing to let the whole ‘terrorize the coven and cause me multiple headaches’ go, but, oh well.

  I couldn’t help but see some parallel between Magpie and Astrid. They’d both been turned as an act of spite against the witches. If Astrid hadn’t had us, or her uncle, or some security to fall back on, would she have turned out like Magpie had? Terrified, alone, cut off from the world and lashing out at everything? I supposed I could muster up a little bit of understanding for her.

  On the night of the full moon, we performed the joining ceremony, welcoming Imani in as a full member of the Scapegrace coven, and everything went flawlessly. She took her vows, and accepted her place, mingling her magic with ours, and it was like a shock of clean, clear water running through our circle. As Imani beamed, flawless in the dress I’d made for her, Poppy actually clapped like she was at a play.

  It was all such a relief, after the weeks of stress and trying to make everything perfect, that we broke out the mulled wine and hard cider, and the whole thing turned into something of a party. With the full moon shining down on all of us, bathing the area behind the coven house in its silver light, I watched and laughed as Olga attempted to teach Betanya some dancing step while Hellcat muttered criticisms and pretended not to be enjoying himself.

  I let him have a saucer of wine, if only to shut him up for a while. The lush.

  Some of the revelry must have spilled out, flowing into the crisp air, because some of the other supernatural neighbors started spilling into the yard, called by the magic of the ritual. Roy, the Sasquatch and fellow Council member, showed up with his succubus girlfriend, Fifi. I might have made a comment about gate-crashers, but they brought food, so I decided to be magnanimous and let them stay.

  Darla and Libby, my accidental ghost and zombie that I’d raised, showed up not long after. Darla made sense, because she loved a party. I was half convinced she could sense them. She had a cup of wine in hand before she’d fully gotten into the yard, and within minutes had some kind of music playing as she did what looked like the Charleston, whooping it up all the while.

  Libby, who’d once been a housewife in the fifties, seemed mostly to want to stand in the corner and sniff disapprovingly of anyone having a drink.

  Poppy had disappeared and shown back up with Finn who was now hanging out with Sybil, and I let her invite some of her little friends over for some sparkling apple juice. Not Magpie, though. I wasn’t quite that okay with her just yet.

  Maverick had managed to coax and wheedle Taliyah into a dance with him, though it was more of a waltz than whatever it was Darla was doing. They looked good together, his dark head bowed towards her silver. I’d rather have eaten glass than ever told him that, of course.

  Even some of the fae from town, the dryads and nymphs who ran a garden center up on the hill, showed up to dance and join the revelry. It made me wonder if maybe Magpie could find a place in Haven Hollow where both sides of her nature could be welcomed.

  Well, that was my brothers’ problem now. I had enough people to watch over.

  Still, I couldn’t help but look at the group gathered together and feel a wave of something very close to pride.

  What we’d built here, with Circle Scapegrace, it was special. A new kind of coven. A better kind. Removed from the old ways, where people abandoned their children for not being exactly what they wanted them to be, or fed them to monsters to preserve the status quo, or kept them perpetually on the outside for simply being born the wrong sex.